Sticky Dating Situations
by smallearthcat
Summary: A look at a few of James and Logan's double dates. James/Logan slash.


The first time it happens is a complete fluke. The girl James has just asked out said yes but asked if her friend could come along, suggesting that James bring a friend, too, when he agreed. He says he'll bring someone and immediately calls Kendall once she's gone.

Kendall, unfortunately, has managed to get his own date, which of course he won't cancel (not that James would ask that of him). So, James calls Carlos. He's kind of surprised when Carlos doesn't answer, because he can't remember Carlos mentioning being busy today.

Still, time is short, and he really can't wait to see if Carlos will pick up or call him back. He'd known he should have asked her out before school ended, but no. So, he calls Logan.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Logan."

"Oh, uh. Hi, James. What's up?"

"I'm going on this date tonight, and you should come with me."

"What? I mean, why would you want me along on your date?"

"Jenna wanted to bring a friend and told me I should, too."

"So, like, a double date?"

"Yeah, I guess."

Logan is silent for a long moment, and James really hopes he won't have to beg. "Alright, what time?"

James does a fist pump as he tells Logan to come over in two hours.

When Logan shows up, it's weird, to say the least. James isn't sure he's ever seen Logan dressed up for anything, but here he is, looking surprisingly good. And, well, James isn't sure what to do now. They don't need to leave for half an hour, time which he'd allowed for having to fix Logan's hair or clothes, or _something_.

"Wanna watch TV? We don't need to leave for a little while yet."

Logan shrugs, and they end up on the couch in James' living room, watching ESPN. It's not exactly thrilling, considering that football's on, but James doesn't know what Logan likes to watch since they rarely spend time alone together, and generally not watching TV in any case. They get into a half-hearted discussion about hockey, but Logan seems a bit too distracted to really concentrate on it.

James wonders idly if this is Logan's first date but decides he'd probably rather not know. It's not his, but only barely, and he's nervous enough that the idea of helping deal with Logan's nerves, too, is just a bit much.

Eventually, it's time for them to leave, and James is so glad his mom is not the nosy type and just drops them off at the diner where they're meeting the girls without asking anything other than when they want her to pick them up.

Turns out they're running a bit early (or the girls are running a bit late), so they sit down to wait. Only five minutes pass before Jenna and her friend arrive, and then there are introductions (since neither of them know Jenna's friend, whose name turns out to be Kathleen) and ordering food.

And that's when things get kind of awkward. He doesn't know all that much about Jenna other than the fact that she's on Student Council, and it turns out Kathleen is, too. The two of them talk about that for awhile, and Logan asks knowledgeable enough questions about it not to look like a complete idiot. James, on the other hand, _feels_ like a complete idiot when he doesn't have anything to say. So, hoping to move the conversation to other topics, he asks Jenna what kind of music she likes.

"Oh, you know, I like a little bit of everything," she says, twirling her finger in her hair.

James smiles; finally, there should be some common ground. "How do you feel about Smokey Robinson?" Jenna and Kathleen both give him blank looks, and James' smile falls away. "_Tracks of My Tears_?" Nothing. "_Tears of a Clown_?" James' voice cracks a little, but they continue to look confused.

"Well, uh, I don't know _those_ songs, but Smokey Robinson, yeah. She's great."

James just stares at Jenna, almost unable to believe what she's just said.

"Personally, I've always thought _I Second That Emotion_ was his best song." All three of them turn to look at Logan in surprise. "What? It's far less depressing than either of the two you named."

"Seriously? I mean yeah, it's not as depressing, but it doesn't hit you as hard emotionally, either."

And so begins an hour-long conversation about Motown. Only, the girls leave after half an hour, as soon as they finish eating. James notices, but just barely. When the discussion finally winds down, James looks at his phone and realizes exactly how long they've been there. He calls his mom and asks her to pick them up as Logan looks around confusedly.

"When did Jenna and Kathleen leave?" he asks when James flips his phone shut.

"Half an hour ago? Something like that."

"Really? I'm sorry."

James almost laughs. "I'm not."

It's not that James didn't like Logan before, but he hadn't realized that they had much more in common than hockey. Logan, the math nerd who wants to be a doctor, and James, the pretty boy who wants to be famous; not exactly a lot of common ground, on the surface. But there are depths to Logan that James hadn't expected (though he doesn't know why since obviously Logan would like other things than math and hockey), and he is curious to learn more.

The problem is, though, that they just don't _talk_ that much, which is probably how they've known each other for years without James having any clue that Logan is into the same music he is.

And yes, James could just ask Logan to hang out or something, but somehow, getting together to talk to each other seems just a bit too…girly. So James doesn't ask, but he does make sure to listen more attentively when Logan is talking. It doesn't really satisfy him, but it's enough to make do for awhile.

And, as it turns out, awhile only lasts a couple of months anyway, because James asks Amanda, who's in the school choir, out, and she mentions having a friend she's trying to set up, too. Stacy is really into science and president of the Physics Club, and James bypasses Kendall and Carlos without a second thought this time, going straight to Logan.

"Dude, you should totally go on a double date with me again."

"Because the last one turned out so well?"

"Hey, it wasn't _that_ bad. Besides, you know Stacy, right? Short red-head? President of Physics Club?"

Logan's eyes widen slightly in recognition. "Ah, Stacy. Right. And who did you ask out?"

"Amanda."

"Hot blond from choir. Good choice."

James nods his agreement. "So, you'll go?"

"Sure. When and where is it gonna be this time?"

They meet at Logan's house rather than James' this time, because as it turns out, he and Amanda live a few blocks from each other. The plan is to walk over and get her and Stacy, then head to the bowling alley that's only another ten minutes away.

James shows up far earlier than he really needs to, but Logan doesn't seem to mind. In fact, they head straight up to Logan's room and proceed to play Zelda 64 for the next two hours once James discovers that Logan has it. They're fifteen minutes late before they even realize it, and practically run all the way to Amanda's house.

Amanda and Stacy don't seem all that impressed, but they manage to stumble through a slightly out-of-breath explanation that seems to appease the girls a little. Even so, the walk to the bowling alley isn't as relaxed as James could have hoped.

It's better once they get there, and they get everything all paid for and set up. After they've bowled a few frames, though, James realizes belatedly that maybe things aren't actually better. For one, he and Logan _probably_ shouldn't have been on the same team. In their defense, though, they've been on the same team for so long that it's second nature to be so when they're together. Also, the girls aren't terribly amused by the fact that they spent the first ten minutes thinking up ridiculous names for each other for scorekeeping.

James isn't sure how to fix it at this point, and as Amanda and Stacy whisper and glare at him, he decides it's probably a lost cause. He and Logan really play to win, and the girls just aren't very good. When Logan starts doing a victory dance after his third strike in a row, Amanda and Stacy leave in a huff.

James thinks about going after them, but Logan is grinning at him, and James finds that he doesn't really care that much, so he picks up his ball. They play out the game, bowling for both sides, and it's more fun than James would have expected, given that he's been ditched by his date for the second time in a row. They're laughing as they leave, and James digs out his phone.

"I'd better call my mom and tell her to come pick me up soon."

"You should spend the night at my house."

James stops dialing. "Are you sure your mom wouldn't mind?"

"Nah, she's always on my case about having someone other than Kendall over. I guess she thinks I don't have enough friends or something. Never mind that you and Carlos usually hang out with us, too." Logan shrugs.

"Well, let's prove her wrong, then."

They have a pretty good night, all told. They stay up late and play some more Zelda, switching to hockey talk when they're too tired to keep playing. The next morning, James wakes practically face-to-face with Logan, which is sort of comforting in its familiarity. Not that he usually wakes face-to-face with Logan or anything, but he does tend to end up sleeping near Kendall, Carlos, and Logan when they have overnight away games.

Logan's mom seems really happy to see him (though he's not entirely sure why; she spoke to him after practice just last week) if the enormous breakfast and enthusiastic greeting he gets when they head downstairs are anything to go by. Logan obviously hadn't been kidding about his mom thinking he needed more friends to spend time with.

James decides that he kind of likes hanging out at Logan's house, even when Logan's younger brother jumps on his back and demands a piggyback ride. James leaves not long after breakfast though, because he has a ridiculous amount of homework to do that day. He is, however, kind of sorry to go.

It's quite awhile before James goes out with someone again, because most of his summer is spent working on the part he got in the musical at the community theater. He wants it to go well since it's a step in the right direction in his quest to become famous, which means that he doesn't have time to waste on things like dates (although he finds that he does always have time for his friends).

When school starts again, he finds himself with more time and a new transfer student in his math class. She asks him out during the first week of school, and to his surprise, James finds himself asking if he can bring a friend along. She seems kind of weirded out by the proposition but agrees readily enough, promising to get her best friend from her old school to join them.

James hasn't exactly run this by Logan, but it's not as if he actually has to tell Logan that it was he, and not Angie, who had set up the double date. Logan seems happy enough to go along, for which James is very grateful. He's not sure how he'd have explained things to Angie if Logan hadn't wanted to go.

They end up at the movies, watching some romantic comedy James vaguely recalls having heard of, but he isn't enjoying it very much. It's boring and kind of cliché, so he pretty much just tunes the whole thing out. He looks over at Logan, just to see if the other boy is enjoying the movie (he seems like he's spacing out more than watching the movie), and when he looks away again, the credits are rolling and Angie is staring at him impatiently.

James gets up hurriedly, and they leave. Normally, after a movie date, James would ask his date if she wanted to hang out for awhile longer, but tonight he just doesn't feel like it. All he wants to do is go home, maybe watch some TV. So he and Logan say goodnight to the girls and call James' mom to come and get them.

They're not even halfway back to Logan's house when James blurts out, "Mom, can Logan spend the night at our house?"

She seems surprised – understandably, since he doesn't often have people spend the night – but she still agrees. "As long as it's alright with Logan's parents."

She glances at Logan in the rearview mirror, and he nods. "Yeah, I'll just call and make sure."

Unsurprisingly, Mrs. Mitchell says it's fine. It's still relatively early, so James goes ahead with his original plan and turns on the TV in his room when they get back to his house. Logan settles in with James readily enough, but after awhile, he speaks up.

"So, what's up with having me spend the night? You told Angie you wanted to get to bed early."

"Maybe I was just tired of her company."

"But not mine?"

"It'd take a lot more than a movie's worth of time to be tired of you."

Logan grins. "Movie marathon until we pass out?"

"Hell, yes. What're you thinking?"

They make it halfway through _The Empire Strikes Back_ before they're out cold.

In the next few months, James doesn't really have time for dating. Sure, the girls in California are hot, but he's a lot more worried about getting their music career off the ground than about finding a girlfriend. To be honest, the first time he's actually serious about even finding a date is when they have the Palmwoods school dance. And then, nothing really works out right anyway because James spends so long helping Logan with Camille that all he manages is seven inadvertent dates with girls whose names he barely remembers. Not ideal in any way, except for the part where he and Logan spend more time together than they have since arriving in California.

But then, one day when they're playing a friendly game of two-on-two street hockey, they meet a group of female hockey players. James takes to Kylee right away, and Logan seems to be getting on pretty well with Tori. After the girls beat them pretty soundly (because man, have they gotten out of practice), Kendall heads off to meet Jo, and Carlos goes home to sleep off the knockings he took.

James dithers a bit, but finally decides to ask Kylee out. "So, Logan and I were gonna go get something to eat, you know, at that Chinese place down the street? And we were wondering if you and Tori might want to come with us." James is glad that Logan doesn't say anything to contradict him. Kylee and Tori exchange a glance, and Tori shrugs.

"Sure, that sounds fun."

They're in the restaurant and seated within five minutes, at which time there's a bit of an awkward silence.

"How long have you two been together, then?" Tori asks.

James chokes on his own spit. "What?"

"Four months."

James turns to stare at Logan, eyes widening in surprise that the question fazes Logan so little that he has a ready answer. Logan glances at James out of the corner of his eye and tilts his head slightly in the direction of the girls.

"Erm, yeah. It's been about that long."

He's frantically trying to figure out where this conversation went wrong and how the girls got the idea that he and Logan were dating. Logan keeps talking to Kylee, going on about how long they've known each other and how they got together, and James can't figure it out until he notices Kylee's arm around Tori's wait, at which point a few things slot into place.

James really thinks about what he said when he was asking her out, and oh. The girls must've thought he and Logan were going out already and had just invited them along to hang out, making it a double date, but not in the way that James had intended. Obviously James needs to be clearer about his wording in the future, although it wouldn't have gotten him anywhere in the case, given that Kylee and Tori must be-

James yelps as he's pulled out of his train of thought by Logan's arm landing on his shoulders. The other three give him funny looks, and James just smiles sheepishly. He's not doing very well contributing to the conversation, but at this point, he doesn't even care. He's too busy wondering why Logan went along with what the girls thought and why he's actually feeling pretty good about this situation, if still kind of confused.

When it's obvious that Tori has just asked him a question and is waiting for an answer, James decides that it doesn't matter much anyway, so he just goes with it. This proves surprisingly easy.

When they get back home that evening, James both does and doesn't want to talk about it, but what he wants doesn't matter much since everyone else is at home and they don't really have the chance to talk. Though everyone goes to bed only a few hours later, James finds that he can't sleep with all the thoughts running through his head. He finally gets up to get a snack, only to find Logan loitering in the living room.

"Hey, James." Logan's voice cracks at first and lowers further than usual on his name to compensate.

James suppresses a smile. "What's up, Logan?"

"Yeah, you know, I was just…going to bed. So I'm just gonna…go now." He points over his shoulder and is halfway back to his room before James even gets the chance to speak.

"Why did you let them think we were together?"

Logan spins around and makes his way back over to James. "Why did you?" he asks in a loud whisper.

"I was just supporting what you said!" And now James is whispering, which is probably just as well because otherwise, there would be yelling, and then everyone would wake up and want to know what's going on, and James has _no idea what he'd tell them_.

"Oh." Logan's shoulders slump, and he turns away again.

And James, well, he isn't one for flashes of insight, but in this case, one hits him like a bowling ball to the gut. Because all of a sudden, James _knows_, without any doubt, why Logan let Kylee and Tori think they were together. Sure, Logan probably didn't want the girls to feel weird about the situation (as they most certainly would have, had they known the truth), but the real reason is because he wanted it to be true.

It's obvious, when James thinks about it. Logan had an awful lot of ready-made lies about their supposed relationship, and he just isn't a good enough liar to have come up with that many on the spot. Hell, James probably wouldn't have been able to either; at least, not if he hadn't had plenty of time to think about it first.

"You wanted it to be true." The words come out sounding surprised, though James doesn't really _feel_ surprised. Logan flinches, but he stops in his tracks. James walks up behind Logan and puts a hand on his shoulder. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Logan barks out a short laugh as he turns to face James. "And how well would that have gone over? You've been setting up double dates with girls for the last year."

"Yeah, you ever wonder why that is? Why we keep going on double dates? Because, you know, it hasn't always been the girls suggesting it."

James fights down a hysterical giggle at the fact that he's _saying_ any of this, because while he realizes that it's true, he's only just figured it out, and it's entirely too soon to be telling anyone, let alone Logan. Logan's eyes widen in surprise, and they flit quickly to where James' hand is still resting on his shoulder before returning to look at James. It's only then that James realizes just how close they're standing. And how easy it would be for him to just-

Logan's lips pressing against his cause all thoughts to fly from James' mind. It's awkward at first because James isn't sure what to do. This is a _boy_ he's kissing, and he's never done that before, and he has no idea what sort of protocol there might be for a situation like this.

Then again, kissing is kissing, right? And so far, it feels a lot like every other kiss in which he's taken part. So, James does what he'd normally do; he wraps his arms around Logan's waist and gets some tongue action going. He doesn't know how long they stand there kissing, but it's long enough that both of them are out of breath when they separate for air. James is trying to decide whether or not to move back in for another kiss when Logan interrupts his train of thought.

"We should probably," he makes a complicated gesture that has James confused. "I mean, someone could come out here at any time, so we probably shouldn't be kissing in the hallway, just in case." James knows that Logan is right, but that doesn't mean he isn't disappointed to have this, whatever it is, end so abruptly. "But maybe, that is, if you're amenable, we could go out sometime?"

Logan's voice squeaks at the end of the question, and James grins, happy but also slightly amused at Logan's nervousness. "Anytime you want."

Both boys head back to their rooms with smiles on their faces.

The next time they go on a date together, they leave girls out of it.


End file.
